Treating your pets like family.

A: Study after scientific study has demonstrated that animals feel pain to the same extent as human beings.  However, because expression of pain can lead predators to target a certain individual as the weakest animal in the pack, evolution has led to animals naturally hiding pain and acting quite stoic to all but the most intense stimuli.  This reaction continues even in our domesticated species.  Human medicine has developed numerous ways to alleviate pain and discomfort.  The standard of care in treating people is to reduce or completely eliminate pain whenever possible.  Many of the drugs and physical therapies used successfully in human patients are also available in veterinary medicine.  Although an animal patient may not show their suffering the same way a human might, the result of injury is almost always a period of pain and inflammation as the trauma heals.  We believe that animal family members deserve the same relief from pain following injury or surgery that we would demand for ourselves.  Therefore, our policy is to always aggressively manage pain in all of our patients to the best of our abilities.